The Presence of Camoes - George Monteiro

Of the great epic poets in the Western tradition Luis Vaz de Cam es (c. 1524- 1580) remains perhaps the least known outside his native Portugal and his influence on literature in English has not been fully recognized. In this major work of comparative scholarship George Monteiro thus breaks new ground focusing on English-language writers whose vision and expression have been sharpened by their varied responses to Cam es. Introduced to English readers in 1655 Cam es's work from the beginning appealed strongly to writers. The young Elizabeth Barrett's Camonean poems for example inspired Edgar Allan Poe to appropriate elements from Cam es. Herman Melville's reading of Cam es bore fruit in his career-long borrowings from the Portuguese poet. Longfellow T.W. Higginson and Emily Dickinson read and championed Cam es. AndCam es as epicist and love poet is an minence grise in several of Elizabeth Bishop's strongest Brazilian poems. Southern African writers have interpreted and reinterpreted Adamastor Cam es's Spirit of the Cape as both a symbol of a dangerous and mysterious Africa and an emblem of European imperialism. Recognizing the presence of Cam es leads Monteiro to provocative rereadings of such texts as Dickinson's Master letters Poe's Raven Melville's late poetry, and Bishop's Questions of Travel.

TITLE: The Presence of Camoes

AUTHOR: George Monteiro

SKU: 9780813119526

PUBLISHER: The University Press of Kentucky

DATE PUBLISHED: 18/04/1996

PLACE PUBLISHED: United States

PAGES: 200

BINDING: Hardback

LANGUAGE: English